Friday, June 13, 2014Last Update: 6:58 AM PT

Klanswoman Pleads Guilty to Perjury

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (CN) - A Klanswoman faces up to 5 years in federal prison after pleading guilty Thursday to perjury during a grand jury investigation of a racially motivated cross-burning committed by her son, federal prosecutors said. Pamela Morris, 46, former secretary of a Klan chapter in Ozark, Ark., admitted that the lied to a federal grand jury investigating a cross-burning committed by her son, Steven Joshua Dinkle, and another Klansman, Thomas Smith, the Department of Justice said in a statement Thursday. "On May 8, 2009, Dinkle and Smith burned a six-foot tall cross at the entrance to an African-American neighborhood in Ozark to threaten and intimidate residents," the Justice Department said in the statement. "In sworn testimony before the grand jury, Morris made several false statements, including denying that she had been the secretary of the chapter or involved with the KKK at all." Dinkle pleaded guilty in February this year to a hate crime and obstruction of justice and was sentenced to 2 years in prison. Smith pleaded guilty to conspiracy to interfere with housing rights. He will be sentenced on Aug. 19.